Reviews for Donna Dewberry's Essential One-Stroke Painting Reference

The average rating for Donna Dewberry's Essential One-Stroke Painting Reference based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-01-14 00:00:00 Johnny Daugherty An interesting and quick read. Hawthorne was, I believe, the founder of the Provincetown Art School and a teacher for over 30 years, well-loved by his students. This book is an attempt to capture some of his teaching magic and was published after his death. His paintings can be found in museums in the US that has some depth in American art after the previous turn of the century. My local museum, the Toledo Museum of Art, has a nice painting of his, though it is rarely on display as his star power as a painter seems to have waned over the years. I'm not a painter but read the book because of an interest in art history generally and specifically an interest in Margery Ryerson, one of Hawthorne's students and apparently the one who took down the notes and compiled her teacher's comments into a generally coherent text. There are some very inspirational passages from Hawthorne that would appeal to anybody, not just aspiring artists, advice that could be translated into any artistic or spiritual aspirations. The book captures an excitement in his teaching that must have been incredibly nourishing for his students, as well as a candor that could have been intimidating. A large portion of the book is documenting critiques that he had of student works. This part of the book can drag given that we don't see any of the images that he is critiquing. You do get a sense here that he was truly an honest teacher, unafraid to praise or trash a student. Ryerson who compiled these notes did the same for Robert Henri in a similar type of book that I think was more successful. Ryerson, herself, was a prolific artist who was active for most of her long life. It is sad that she herself didn't publish a book. I would have liked to have heard her advice to students.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-10-08 00:00:00 William Harmon Honestly, not good. I really wanted to like it because of a few one liners that would move any painter, but otherwise the whole book was really repetitive. "Get the spots of color, the spots of color, dont draw, spots of color, spots of color, just get the spots of color right" over and over again until I just had to put it down. Could not bear another variation of just get the spots of color one more time. That one notion takes up about 70% of the book, another 20% is him getting to that point, and 10% are refreshing insightful remarks about oil painting.